Agfa-Gevaert is launching a new nanosilver conductive ink that could drastically improve the efficiency of fine printing of products using silver. Si-P1000x will be available for supply in commercial volumes later in 2014.
Peter Willaert, product manager for printed electronics at Agfa-Gevaert, SP division, discusses the new ink's potential to disrupt display markets and to open opportunities for new printed electronics applications.
Why did Agfa decide to develop this ink? We developed Si-P1000x as an alternative for indium tin oxide (ITO). While ITO is the most important transparent conductor used for glass applications in displays, it has limitations in conductivity when applied on polymer (film) substrates due to the requirement to be annealed at high temperature during manufacturing, and its brittleness.
Agfa sought to create a silver nanoparticle technology to apply a metal mesh. A fine, almost invisible metal mesh, or grid, can be combined with a uniform layer of PEDOT:PSS polymer, to boost the overall conductivity while retaining a high transparency.
Are there wider implications for printed electronics?
We realised quickly that the nanosilver inks can also be deployed in markets where traditional flake inks are used. Early customer tests have shown that the ink is compatible with standard processes used for flake inks and those markets are much larger than the still-to-be-developed ITO film replacement market.
How does Si-P1000x perform relative to traditional silver flake inks?
The main advantage of using nanosilver particle technology is a much higher conductivity. You can obtain a target resistance with either a much thinner layer - 1-2µ, versus 10-20 µ - by using a finer printing mesh, or by reducing the dimensions of the printed traces.
In all cases, the coverage obtained with the ink [conductive area per kilogram of ink] will be much higher and, as a bonus, it is possible to print much finer lines and spaces, so this ink supports the ongoing trends for miniaturisation.
Following further development the ink could be applied using flexo, gravure or inkjet. These methods are not suited for traditional flake-based silver inks, which are essentially limited to screen printing.
When will the ink be available?
Orders can be fulfilled immediately on a kilogram scale. The product will be available in 2014 on a 50kg per month scale. We believe this is the first nanosilver ink in the world that is being produced on this scale.
We are currently sampling the product to interested parties and are trying to secure qualification in real-life products.
What are the applications beyond ITO substitution?
We have seen interest from companies that are active in the membrane keyboard market, but that are looking to deploy their expertise in new markets geared towards printed electronics. This is especially true of products where the conductive ink forms a big part of the bill of materials cost. People are looking to reduce the amount of ink they need.
Other companies showing interest in the product are engaged in electronic product code uses, such as RFID and item-level tagging. These companies realise that printing a highly efficient ink will allow them to explore new possibilities in integrating RFID antennas into other objects.
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